Adventure Comics Vol 1 47
A hovering storm had hit the small, tropical town of Porto Flora with devilish fury. George Sumner, plantation owner, watched from the desk in his study as the storm raged on. Flashes of lightning lit up the sky, and ominous bellows of thunder rolled through the town. As the lightning flashed once more, something out on the veranda caught George's eye. A human-like figure was prowling around. George opened his desk drawer and pulled out a revolver before heading for the door. He paused on the threshold and in the blackness he sensed rather than saw the person at the far end of the veranda. When he called out, a scuffling sound ensued, and then a shadowy form was seen leaping over the side and dashing madly across the clearing towards a group of palms forty yards away. Suddenly, a blinding flash momentarily enveloped the area, and when George uncovered his eyes, the trespasser had crumpled to the ground! He rushed into his house to find a flashlight while his servant, Abe, hounded him with questions. But George just ran back outside into the pouring rain towards the downed man. It turned out to be Miguel, a locally known mentally-disturbed man who now showed no signs of life. The police captain, Dean, was called and Miguel was pronounced dead and taken to the town morgue to await burial procedures... The next day when the storm had subsided, Captain Dean went to the morgue to check on the body to find, to his shock, that it had gone missing! The police were sent all across Porto Flora in search of Miguel's corpse, with some even checking with his mother in case she had stolen it for some kind of voodoo ritual. None could find any trace. Weeks went by before strange reports started coming in from the locals. People were being beaten and robbed by a man out in the countryside, and each and every unfortunate victim was testifying that the attacker was Miguel! Strange though the reports sounded, a thought had occured to Dean, and he went to see George at his plantation home. The two discussed the stories from the victims and Dean lays down his two cents, saying that it was possible that Miguel was never really dead. There had been cases of people being hit by a high electric current, such as a bolt of lightning, and exhibiting signs of death when in actuality they were put into a deep stupor or coma. This was likely what had happened to Miguel, and odds were, he really was the one commiting those acts of violence. As it started to get late, and it being Abe's night off, George saw the captain to the front door. The night was clear and pleasantly warm, and Dean strolled through the tall grass to where his car was parked in the roadway. Then, suddenly from the house came a startled cry of alarm! The captain whirled around to see that the lights in the house had gone off. He rushed back to the front porch and drew his gun before opening the front door. Inside, Sumner was struggling with another man who was holding a knife, attempting to plunge it into George's body. Taking careful aim, Captain Dean raised his gun and fired a shot, felling the assailant. When the lights were turned back on, the two men found themselves staring down at Miguel! He had probably been watching them through a window, waiting for the perfect time to strike. This time, however, he wouldn't be coming back from the dead... | Synopsis6 = The East India Transport Company had lost several planes laden with gold and Captain Desmo and Gabby had offered their services to help solve the mystery. However, they were captured by the villain Vasili Gerke and his machine that causes passing planes to stall, thinking that Desmo was carrying more gold. The natives under his thrall held the two men firm in their grip as Vasili checked the contents of the plane. He was infuriated when he found it containing fool's gold, realizing he had been tricked, and ordered Desmo and Gabby to be killed at once! They, however, have managed to fight off the native guards and escape by jumping into the river far below, allowing the swift current to carry them away from the madman's clutches... The next morning, Captain Desmo and Gabby return to the village with a plan. Both knocking out a pair of guards, they steal their guns and begin looking for the prisoner hut where the other pilots were being held. They soon find it after hearing shouts of distress from within, and Desmo uses the machine gun to shoot the lock off. The bursts of gunfire are heard by Gerke, who send out some of his men to investigate, while at the same time, the formerly imprisoned pilots entered the munitions hut and armed themselves with heavy automatics to aid their escape. An ancient gong was sounded in response to the prisoners' escape, calling countless natives to take their positions. Machine guns blast forth, preventing escape through any exit. Desmo and Gabby were pinned down by the gunners, though luckily Gabby had the foresight to take a few sticks of dynamite from the hut. Each time one was lit, he then tossed it at the natives' positions. The strong retaliation gave the natives a yellow streak and they fled, with the aviators firing shots after them until they surrendered. But Vasili Gerke wasn't spotted with them. Captain Desmo saw the coward fleeing in a separate direction across a crude rope bridge and gave chase, but the old look of the bridge deterred him from crossing himself, and it became a good choice on his part. The ropes supporting the boards snapped and Gerke was sent plummeting to his death on the rocks below. The pilots were now free, all that was left was to return the stolen gold to the transporting company, and hand the natives over to the British government to be tried for their crimes. | Synopsis7 = A huge liner arrives at port carrying among its departing passengers, Steve Conrad, and his faithful servant, Chang. Steve muses that it felt good to be back in civilization after all the adventures they've had, while Chang responds cryptically that adventures often follow in the footsteps of adventurers. Steve only smiles at his friend as he hails a taxi, believing that no adventure could find them in the big city. Just as he got the words out, however, Steve sees a young woman across the street being forced against her will into a car that speeds off down the road afterwards! He and Chang get into the cab and yell at the driver to follow the car! The chase led them into Chinatown, where the car's occupants departed with the girl in tow, disappearing down an alley. Steve and Chang ran after them, but when they turn the corner into the alley, they find a group of toughs standing in front of them with scowls on their faces. They are threatened by the thugs, being told to leave or bad things will happen to them... At the Explorers Club, where adventurer's gathered to share tales of their journeys, Steve ponders over the problem of how to free the kidnapped girl. Chang shows up holding a newspaper containing an article about the kidnapping. The woman was identified as the police commissioner's daughter, who was suspected to have been taken by a Chinese drug ring to keep the commissioner off the case. But Steve knew the commissioner as a guy who never backed down no matter what the situation, meaning they needed to find out where the girl is being held, fast, so they could rescue her before she was killed. Chang heads out to his uncle in Chinatown to find out if he's heard anything. Soon after he had gone, Steve is startled by a rock crashing through the window, with an attached note warning him not to make any further attempts to rescue the girl! The man who threw the rock was seen dashing away down the street. Steve followed behind while taking care not to be seen, hoping that the man would lead him to the drug ring's hideout, whom he figured wouldn't be expecting him so soon. The figure heads into a small building in a dark alley of Chinatown, with Steve waiting a moment or two before following... The room inside was too dark to see anything. He had only taken a few steps in when something thumped him over the head and he fell to the ground unconscious... Meanwhile, Chang is learning about the drug ring from his uncle, who had spies set up around Chinatown to bring him information. Even Steve Conrad's capture hadn't gone unnoticed, and Chang's uncle mentioned an old woman in the area who made dope deliveries to the criminals hideout. Chang paid her a visit, and got her to spill the location of the hideout by threatening to tell the police about her involvement... It has been a few hours since Steve Conrad had revived inside a locked room with his hands tied behind his back. Beside him, with her hands bound as well, was the commissioner's daughter. The two of them had been thinking of ways to escape, all the while knowing that their time was running out. And when the locked door began to open, Steve braced himself for a fight with one of the guards, but saw his loyal servant and faithful friend Chang standing in the doorway instead! He and the girl ere untied and followed Chang back through the chambers where they found the members of the drug ring all fast asleep, thanks to Chang's special "dream aroma". The police are called from a phone booth outside, and the sleepy criminals are rounded up with the drugs being taken in for evidence. The police Commissioner is reunited with his daughter, with no sign of Steve or Chang, which she explains is because they would rather not deal with the press coverage and questions asked. Steve Conrad had left his card with her, however, should she ever need to ask him and Chang for help again... | Synopsis8 = Rusty, Specs, and Tubby have just witnessed an old man having a heart attack after his bodyguard was killed. A loud knocking is heard at the door of the mansion, so Rusty leaves his friends to tend to the old man while he answers it. To his surprise, on the threshold stood a dwarfish man holding a gun, with an odd smile upon his face. At gunpoint, Rusty leads the little person to the old man, who had recovered from the heart attack only to panic at the sight of the man whom he calls "Tino". The dwarf, or Tino, tells the man to give "it" back to him, or he'll shoot. The boys temporarily forgotten, Specs and Tubby wait for Rusty to grab the spear being held by the nearby suit of armor. He tosses the spear at Tino, making him drop his gun which Tubby retrieves. Now Rusty threatens the little man, telling him to leave or else he'll get a spear through the neck just like the old man's bodyguard got a dart through his. "Bolton dead from a dart?" Tino gasps, "Then the natives are here!" The frightened dwarf scurries down the hallway in fear, crying out "the natives" over and over again. Behind them, the old man started suffering another heart attack! He utters for them to go to Wayside Inn and bring his nephew, Angus McHeather, back to the mansion. But he dies before he can finish, ending with only "look behind Stevenson...". Things get weirder when the boys reach town. A fight has apparently broken out at the Inn as a local tells them that Angus McHeather was getting rowdy with some of the townspeople, as was often the case. From the sound of things inside, Specs figured that Angus had to be a giant of a man in order to be causing such a ruckus! A minute later, the Inn quiets down and the door bursts open to reveal a man of about 4-feet tall. Rusty approaches him about his uncle's last words, and Angus agrees to go with the boys even though he was never that close to the old man in life. But something fishy was happening at the mansion, and he was determined to get to the bottom of it... | Synopsis9 = Don Kerry is in Jamaica to investigate the reported torpedoing of the U.S. Steamship, Anne, which was hauling a large shipment of gold to America shores. He starts off by questioning Captain Skinner in his home. He was the only one who saw the submarine before it attacked and ordered all hands into the lifeboats. As for the captain, he and two other crewmen, who were currently sitting in the room with him, were the last to leave. Being only sixty miles away from Jamaican land, Skinner explains that in their haste to make it to shore they must have just missed the other crew, who were picked up within the hour. He becomes more offensive when Don asks about the gold the ship was carrying, and forces Don out of his house. Kerry is naturally suspicious of the sudden outburst. That night he visits Skinner's private wharf and finds the launch used to escape the Anne. On the floor of the vessel is a small metal tag belonging to one of the sacks of gold! Did Skinner sink his own ship to get his hands on the gold transport? Don isn't given much time to ponder before someone appears behind him and knocks him out cold... In the home of Captain Skinner, Don is revived. Skinner apologizes for the rough nature of his cohorts, and then confirms Don's suspicions by showing him the bags of gold he had been hiding. The explosion of the Anne was not caused by a torpedo, but by a charge of nitro that was carefully placed so that there would be no casualties. Skinner explained he didn't like to bloody his hands unless he had to, and if Kerry dropped the investigation he'd cut him in on a share. But Don was too honorable a man to agree to such terms so Skinner had his men take him to an offshore island in order to give the navy man a taste of what could happen to him. A native witchdoctor was bribed with a promise of gold bars by the captain for his services. The native had a mixture of toxins known only to the tribe's other witchdoctors that when injected could put a man into a "zombie" state, paralyzing all mental functions and making them open to suggestion that would reduce them to unwavering slaves. The effect was permanent, and as the native injected the serum into Don's body, Skinner promised to return him to the navy department as a walking corpse. However, his greed may be what saves Kerry's life, for when the witchdoctor asks Skinner for the gold he promised, he is told to forget about it. Angered, he calls upon his tribe to teach the white men a lesson. The captain and his two cohorts are attacked in an ambush! The witchdoctor, in the meantime, hurriedly works with an antidote to save Kerry's mind from the toxins. Then he walks over to where the tribe was keeping Captain Skinner in their grasp, and injects the toxin serum into him, despite his pleas. Taking the launch back to Jamaican shores, Don Kerry is met by Detective Daniels of the insurance company. He had come with the police and discovered the gold hidden in Skinner's residence. Daniels notices the captain stepping out of the launch with the help of the witchdoctor, wondering what was wrong with him. Kerry relates his experience to the detective, which ended with the thieving Skinner losing his sense of self and becoming just another poor zombie slave. | Synopsis10 = Returning to Barlunda after the raid on Sere's radium mines, Cotton Carver finds out that his beloved Deela, princess of the Barlundan pirates, had been abducted by the wicked First Ones. He has a flier prepared so he could go rescue her, even though King Marl told him that going alone would be suicide, Cotton responded that one man would have a better chance of entering their land unseen than would a thousand. The flier shoots off at the speed of a bullet with Cotton at the controls. He flew over the boiling springs residing in the mountainous region of the First Ones, and with his binoculars he saw Deela farther below in a thick jungle, being forced along by her captors! The neanderthal-like First Ones saw the flier as it dropped downward towards them and raised their spears in attack. After so many adventures involving the flying wonder vehicle, Cotton had gotten very proficient with the controls and was able to guide it perfectly through the neanderthal horde and alondgside Deela, who hopped aboard the craft as it rose back into the atmosphere. But the added weight of another person made them fly too low to make it past the dangerous steam from the springs! Cotton had to land. He and Deela traveled by foot, with the flier set to hover behind them, to scout out a safe path out of the region. Behind them was heard the shouting of the First Ones, who had gathered a party together to kill the two escapees. In a selfless act, Cotton sends Deela up in the flier while he remains behind to fight his way through! Deela finds that the lever to go back down had been broken off so she couldn't return to her beloved's side. Though he fights bravely against the odds, Cotton is overtaken by the men and hogtied to a post that they carry back to their home in the cavernous mountains. The First Ones wretched chief, Grook the Great, orders the puny white man to be thrown to the vultures. Meanwhile, near the boiling hot springs, Deela works frantically to fix the flier, glad that her position as a pirate princess required her to know all about the mechanics of all airships. Finally, she's able to fly it back to the lands of the First Ones, where she had left her darling Cotton Carver. A large pack of vultures flying around a cliff in the mountains gain her notice... Grook was growing impatient, the vultures weren't attacking Cotton as long as he was still alive, so the evil chieftain grabbed a spear and aimed it carefully, intending o finish the white man off so the birds could eat. To his shock, just as he's thrown the spear, a small flying vehicle comes between it and Cotton, and the weapon is deflected harmlessly of the craft's side. Deela lands the flier next to Cotton's bound form and helps him on board, smiling as he gave her his thanks. Before leaving, they stop at the top of the cliff so Cotton could give Grook a good right hook right in the jaw, knocking him off the edge into the vultures' den. However as he returned to Deela's side, he found her struggling with the controls. Something was wrong with the craft's magneto-generator, and they were slowly dropping. Beyond the cliffs of the First Ones and into a valley, they dropped, Cotton yet again finding a new adventure was about to begin for him! | Editor1_1 = Vincent Sullivan | Editor2_1 = Vincent Sullivan | Editor3_1 = Vincent Sullivan | Editor4_1 = Vincent Sullivan | Editor5_1 = Vincent Sullivan | Editor6_1 = Vincent Sullivan | Editor7_1 = Vincent Sullivan | Editor8_1 = Vincent Sullivan | Editor9_1 = Vincent Sullivan | Editor10_1 = Vincent Sullivan | Writer1_1 = Gardner Fox | Writer2_1 = Ed Winiarski | Writer3_1 = Jerry Siegel | Writer4_1 = Al Sulman | Writer5_1 = Rex Vance | Writer6_1 = Ed Winiarski | Writer7_1 = Jack Lehti | Writer8_1 = Bill Finger | Writer9_1 = Bart Tumey | Writer10_1 = Gardner Fox | Penciler1_1 = Ogden Whitney | Penciler2_1 = Ed Winiarski | Penciler3_1 = Mart Bailey | Penciler4_1 = Joseph Sulman | Penciler5_1 = | Penciler6_1 = Ed Winiarski | Penciler7_1 = Jack Lehti | Penciler8_1 = Bob Kane | Penciler9_1 = Bart Tumey | Penciler10_1 = Ogden Whitney | Inker1_1 = Ogden Whitney | Inker2_1 = Ed Winiarski | Inker3_1 = Mart Bailey | Inker4_1 = Joseph Sulman | Inker5_1 = | Inker6_1 = Ed Winiarski | Inker7_1 = Jack Lehti | Inker8_1 = Bob Kane | Inker9_1 = Bart Tumey | Inker10_1 = Ogden Whitney | Colourist1_1 = | Letterer1_1 = | Appearing1 = Featured Characters: * Supporting Characters: * Adversaries: * Trigger Hunt * Black Bill Trent Other Characters: * Anson Port * Locations: * ** *** Items: * Vehicles: * Dodds' Car | Appearing2 = Featured Characters: * Supporting Characters: * Inspector LeGrand Adversaries: * Spy Leader * LeGrand Imposter (spy) Other Characters: * Locations: * France Items: * None Vehicles: * Inspector's Squad Car | Appearing3 = Featured Characters: * Steve Carson Supporting Characters: * Adversaries: * Luigi * Anarchists Other Characters: * The Commissioner Locations: * Washington D.C. Items: * None Vehicles: * None | Appearing4 = Featured Characters: * Socko Strong Supporting Characters: * Jerry Indutch Adversaries: * Monte Swift * Joe Other Characters: * Solly Lloyd Locations: * Hollywood Items: * None Vehicles: * None | Appearing5 = Featured Characters: * George Sumner Supporting Characters: * Captain Dean Adversaries: * Miguel Other Characters: * Abraham Jones Locations: * Porto Flora Items: * None Vehicles: * None | Appearing6 = Featured Characters: * Captain Desmo Supporting Characters: * Gabby Maguire Adversaries: * Vasili Gerke * Toku Other Characters: * Locations: * East India Items: * None Vehicles: * None | Appearing7 = Featured Characters: * Steve Conrad Supporting Characters: * Chang Adversaries: * Chinese Dope Ring Other Characters: * Commissioner's Daughter Locations: * Chinatown Items: * Narcotics Vehicles: * None | Appearing8 = Featured Characters: * Rusty Supporting Characters: * Specs * Tubby Adversaries: * Tino Other Characters: * John Rankin * Angus McHeather Locations: * Unknown Items: * None Vehicles: * None | Appearing9 = Featured Characters: * Don Kerry Supporting Characters: * Adversaries: * Captain Skinner Other Characters: * Detective Daniels * Witchdoctor Locations: * Jamaica Items: * None Vehicles: * None | Appearing10 = Featured Characters: * Supporting Characters: * Deela Adversaries: * Grook * The First Ones Other Characters: * King Marl Locations: * Barlunda * Land of the First Ones Items: * None Vehicles: * Air Flier | Notes = * "Lady in Evening Clothes" is reprinted in the Golden Age Sandman Archives Volume 1 * Following this issue, the Captain Desmo stories are moved to More Fun Comics. * This issue marks the final appearance of the "Professor Doolittle" strip. * Steve Conrad last appeared in issue #25. | Trivia = * First "Anchors Aweigh" where Red Murphy doesn't make a single appearance. | Recommended = | Links = * Adventure Comics #47 index entry * Adventure Comics #47 spoilers 1 * Adventure Comics #47 spoilers 2 }}